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Does Education Improve Citizenship? Evidence from the U.S. and the U.K

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Author Info
Kevin Milligan
Enrico Moretti
Philip Oreopoulos

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Abstract

Many economists and educators of diverse political beliefs favor public support for education on the premise that a more educated electorate enhances the quality of democracy. While some earlier studies document an association between schooling and citizenship, little attempt has been made to address the possibility that unobservable characteristics of citizens underlie this relationship. This paper explores the effect of extra schooling induced through compulsory schooling laws on the likelihood of becoming politically involved in the US and the UK. We find that educational attainment is related to several measures of political interest and involvement in both countries. For voter turnout, we find a strong and robust relationship between education and voting for the US, but not for the UK. Using the information on validated voting, we find that misreporting of voter status can not explain our estimates. Our results suggest that the observed drop in voter turnout in the US from 1964 to 2000 would have been 10.4 to 12.3 percentage points greater if high school attainment had stayed at 1964 rates, holding all else constant. However, when we condition on registration, our US results approach the UK findings. This may indicate that registration rules present a barrier to low-educated citizens' participation.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9584.

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Date of creation: Mar 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9584

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I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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  1. Valentino Larcinese, 2006. "Information Acquisition, Ideology and Turnout:Theory and Evidence from Britain," STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series 18, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  2. Christopher H. Wheeler, 2007. "Human capital externalities and adult mortality in the U.S," Working Papers 2007-045, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  3. Colin Vance & Ralf Hedel, 2006. "On the Link between Urban Form and Automobile Use - Evidence from German Survey Data," RWI Discussion Papers 0048, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung. [Downloadable!]
  4. Thomas S. Dee, 2003. "Are There Civic Returns to Education?," NBER Working Papers 9588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  6. David Dreyer Lassen, 2004. "The Effect of Information on Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," EPRU Working Paper Series 04-03, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Martins, Pedro S., 2004. "Firm-Level Social Returns to Education," IZA Discussion Papers 1382, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  8. Susan Dynarski, 2005. "Building the Stock of College-Educated Labor," NBER Working Papers 11604, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Del Bono, Emilia & Galindo-Rueda, Fernando, 2004. "Do a Few Months of Compulsory Schooling Matter? The Education and Labour Market Impact of School Leaving Rules," IZA Discussion Papers 1233, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Michael J. Rizzo, 2005. "The public interest in higher education," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 19-45. [Downloadable!]
  11. Kathryn Wilson & Kristina Lambright & Timothy M. Smeeding, 2004. "School Finance, Equivalent Educational Expenditure, and Income Distribution: Equal Dollars or Equal Chances for Success?," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 62, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University. [Downloadable!]
  12. Susana Iranzo & Giovanni Peri, 2006. "Schooling Externalities, Technology and Productivity: Theory and Evidence from U.S. States," NBER Working Papers 12440, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Pischke, Jörn-Steffen, 2003. "The Impact of Length of the School Year on Student Performance and Earnings: Evidence from the German Short School Years," CEPR Discussion Papers 4074, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Edward Glaeser & Giacomo Ponzetto & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "Why Does Democracy Need Education?," NBER Working Papers 12128, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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